Iraq ( or ,
Arabic:
), officially the
Republic of Iraq (
Arabic:
, , Komara Îraqê, Assyrian: ܥܝܪܐܩ), also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range
, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq
shares borders with Jordan
to the west,
Syria
to the northwest, Turkey
to the
north, Iran
to the east,
and Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia
to the south. Iraq has a narrow
section of coastline measuring 58 km (35 miles) on the
northern Persian
Gulf
. The capital city, Baghdad
( ), is in
the center-east of the country.
Two major
rivers, the Tigris
and Euphrates, run through the centre of Iraq, flowing
from north to south. These provide Iraq with agriculturally
capable land and contrast with the
steppe and
desert landscape that covers most of
Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was known in
Europe by the
Greek eponym '
Mesopotamia'
(Land between the rivers);
after the foundation of the
Kingdom of
Iraq in 1932, it became known by its ancient endonym 'Iraq'.
Iraq has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the
6th millennium BC. The region
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is identified as the
cradle of civilization and
the birthplace of
writing and the
wheel.
Throughout
its long history, Iraq has been the center of the Akkadian
, Assyrian,
Babylonian, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid and Abbasid empires, and part of the Achaemenid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol,
Ottoman and British empires.
Beginning
with the invasion in 2003, a
multinational coalition of
forces, mainly American
and British
, occupied Iraq.
The occupation ended when
sovereignty
was transferred to the
Iraqi Interim Government June 2004.
A new
Constitution of Iraq has
since been approved by referendum and a new
Government of Iraq has been
elected.
Some dispute whether Iraq is
de facto sovereign (see
Iraqi sovereignty,
United States-Iraq
relations).
Etymology
The
Arabic name has been in use since before
the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name.
One dates
to the Sumerian city of Uruk
(Biblical
Hebrew Erech) and is thus ultimately
of Sumerian origin, as
Uruk was the Akkadian
name for the Sumerian city of , containing the Sumerian word for
"city", URU.
another maintains according to Professor Wilhelm Eilers, "The name
al-‘Irāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from
Middle Persian erāq lowlands".
Mesopotamia has always been called
"
the land of Iraq" in Arabic, meaning "
the fertile" or "
deep-rooted land". During the medieval
period, there was a region called
ʿIrāq ʿArabī ("Arabian
Iraq") for
lower Mesopotamia and
ʿIrāq ʿajamī ("
Persian Iraq"
or "Foreign Iraq"), for the region now situated in Central and
Western Iran.
The term historically included the plain
south of the Hamrin Mountains and
did not include the northernmost
and westernmost parts of the modern
territory of Iraq.
As an Arabic word,
عراق means
hem, shore,
bank, or edge, so that the name by
folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the
escarpment", viz. at the south and east
of the
Jazira Plateau, which
forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi"
area.
The
Arabic pronunciation is . In
English, it is either (the only pronunciation listed in the
Oxford English Dictionary
and the first one in
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) or (listed first
by
MQD), the
American Heritage Dictionary, and the
Random
House Dictionary. is frequently heard in US media.
History
Ancient Iraq
Iraq has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the
6th millennium BC. These
civilizations produced the earliest
writing,
literature,
sciences,
mathematics,
laws, and
philosophies of the
world; hence its common epithet, the "
Cradle of Civilization".
Iraq was home to the earliest known
civilization on
Earth It
was here in the late
4th millennium
BC, that the world's
first writing system and recorded history itself
were born.
The Sumerian civilization flourished for
over 3,000 years and was succeeded by the rise of the Akkadian
Empire in the 24th century
BC. Over two centuries of Akkadian dominance was
followed by a
Sumerian
Renaissance in the
21st century
BC.
An Elamite
invasion in 2004 BC brought the Third Dynasty of Ur to an end. By
the
18th century BC a new
civilization,
Babylonia, had risen to
dominance in central and southern Iraq while a contemporaneous
civilization,
Assyria, had formed in
northern Iraq.
In the
6th century BC,
Cyrus the Great of neighbouring
Persia defeated the
Neo-Babylonian Empire at the
Battle of Opis and Iraq was subsumed into the
Achaemenid Empire for nearly four
centuries. In the late
4th century
BC,
Alexander the Great
conquered the region, putting it under
Hellenistic Seleucid rule for nearly two centuries. A
Central Asian tribe of
ancient Iranian peoples known as the
Parthians later annexed the region, followed
by the
Romans, then the
Sassanid Persians. The region remained a
province of the Persian Empire for nine centuries, until the
Islamic conquest of
Mesopotamia in the
7th century
AD.
Islamic Golden Age
[[File:Age-of-caliphs.png|thumb|280px|The
Islamic Empire and the
caliphs during their greatest extent.
]]
The
Islamic
conquest in the
7th century CE
established
Islam in Iraq.
Under the Rashidun Caliphate, the prophet Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law Ali moved his capital to Kufa
"fi al-Iraq"
when he became the fourth caliph.
The
Umayyad Caliphate ruled the province of Iraq
from Damascus
in the 7th century. (However, eventually
there was a separate, independent
Caliphate of Cordoba.)
The
Abbasid Caliphate built the city
of Baghdad in the 8th
century as their capital, and it became the leading metropolis of
the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. Baghdad
was the largest
multicultural
city of the
Middle
Ages, peaking at a population of more than a million, and was
the centre of learning during the
Islamic Golden Age. The
Mongols destroyed the city during the
sack of Baghdad in the 13th
century.
Mongol rule
In 1257,
Hulagu Khan amassed an
unusually large army, a significant portion of the
Mongol Empire's forces, for the purpose of
conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital,
Hulagu demanded surrender but the last Abbasid Caliph
Al-Musta'sim refused. This angered Hulagu, and,
consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, Baghdad
was decimated. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000
to a million.
The Mongols destroyed the
Abbasid
Caliphate and The Grand Library of Baghdad (Arabic بيت الحكمة
Bayt al-Hikma, lit.,
House of
Wisdom), which contained countless, precious, historical
documents. The city has never regained its status as major center
of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol
invasion destroyed much of the
irrigation
infrastructure that had sustained
Mesopotamia for many millennia. Other historians
point to
soil salination as the
culprit in the decline in agriculture.
The mid-14th-century
Black Death ravaged
much of the
Islamic world.
The best
estimate for Middle East—Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.—is a
death rate of a third.
In 1401, warlord of Mongol descent
Tamerlane (Timur Lenk) invaded Iraq. After the
capture of Bagdad, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred. Timur
ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed
human heads to show him (many warriors were so scared they killed
prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had
heads to present to Timur).
Ottoman Empire
During the late
14th and early
15th centuries, the
Black Sheep Turkmen ruled the area now
known as Iraq. In
1466, the
White Sheep Turkmen defeated the Black
Sheep and took control. In the 16th century, most of the territory
of present-day Iraq came under the control of
Ottoman Empire as the
pashalik of Baghdad. Throughout most of the period
of Ottoman rule (1533–1918) the territory of present-day Iraq was a
battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal
alliances.
The Safavid
dynasty of Iran briefly
asserted their hegemony over Iraq in the periods of 1508–1533 and
1622–1638.
During
the years 1747–1831 Iraq was ruled by the Mamluk officers of Georgian
origin who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the
Sublime Porte, suppressed tribal
revolts, curbed the power of the Janissaries, restored order and
introduced a program of modernization of economy and
military. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow the
Mamluk regime and imposed their direct control over Iraq. The
population of Iraq had shrunk to under 5 million by the early 20th
century.
20th century
World War I
During
World War I the
Ottomans were driven from much of the area by the
United Kingdom during the
dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the
Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses
are unknown but the British captured a total of 45,000
prisoners of war. By the end of 1918 the
British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, though only 112,000
were combat troops.
During World War I the British and French divided
Western Asia in the
Sykes-Picot Agreement.
Treaty of Lausanne, led to the advent of
modern Western Asia and Republic of
Turkey
. The League of
Nations granted France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and granted the United
Kingdom mandates over Iraq
and Palestine (which then
consisted of two autonomous regions: Palestine and Transjordan
). Parts of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula became parts of what are
today Saudi
Arabia and Yemen
.
British Mandate of Mesopotamia
At the end of World War I, the
League
of Nations granted the area to the United Kingdom as a
mandate. It initially formed two
former
Ottoman vilayets (regions):
Baghdad and
Basra into a single country
in August 1921. Five years later, in 1926, the northern vilayet of
Mosul was added,
forming the territorial boundaries of the modern Iraqi state.
For three out of four centuries of
Ottoman
rule, Baghdad was the seat of administration for the vilayets of
Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra. During the
mandate,
British colonial administrators ruled the
country, and through the use of
British
armed forces, suppressed Arab and Kurdish rebellions against
the occupation.
They established the Hashemite king, Faisal, who had been forced out of
Syria by the French, as their client ruler.
Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the
region for appointments to government and ministry offices.
Kingdom of Iraq
Britain granted independence to Iraq in 1932, on the urging of
King Faisal, though the British
retained
military bases and transit
rights for their forces. King
Ghazi
ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while
undermined by attempted military
coups, until his death in 1939. Ghazi was
followed by his under age son,
Faisal
II.
'Abd al-Ilah served as
Regent during Faisal's minority.
On 1 April 1941,
Rashid Ali
al-Gaylani and members of the
Golden Square staged a
coup d'état and overthrew the
government of 'Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent
Anglo-Iraqi War, the United Kingdom invaded
Iraq for fear that the Rashid Ali government might cut oil supplies
to Western nations because of his links to the
Axis powers. The war started on 2 May and an
armistice was signed 31 May.
A
military occupation followed
the restoration of the pre-coup government of the
Hashemite monarchy. The occupation ended on 26
October 1947. The rulers during the occupation and the remainder of
the Hashemite monarchy were
Nuri
al-Said, the autocratic Prime Minister, who also ruled from
1930–1932, and 'Abd al-Ilah, the former Regent who now served as an
adviser to King Faisal II.
Republic of Iraq
The reinstated
Hashemite monarchy lasted
until 1958, when it was overthrown by a
coup
d'etat of the
Iraqi Army, known as
the
14 July Revolution. The coup
brought
Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim to power.
He withdrew from the
Baghdad Pact and established friendly
relations with the Soviet
Union
, but his government lasted only until the February 1963 coup,
when it was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif. Salam Arif died in
1966 and his brother,
Abdul Rahman
Arif, assumed the presidency.
In 1968, Rahman Arif was overthrown by the
Arab Socialist Baath
Party. Ahmed Hasan Al-Bakir became the first Baath
President of Iraq but then the movement
gradually came under the control of
Saddam Hussein al Tikriti, who acceded to the
presidency and control of the
Revolutionary Command
Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July
1979.
In 1979, Saddam Hussein took power as Iraqi President after
knocking down his close friend and the leader of his party (Ahmed
Hasan Al-Bakr) and killing and arresting his leadership rivals.
Shortly after taking power, the political situation in Iraq's
neighbor Iran changed drastically after the success of the
Islamic Revolution of
Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, which resulted in a
Shi'ite
Muslim theocratic state being established. This was seen as a
dangerous change in the eyes of the Iraqi government, as Iraq too
had a Shi'ite majority and was ruled by Hussein's government which,
apart from having numerous
Sunnis
occupying leading positions, had a pan-Arab but non-religious
ideology.
This left the country's Shiite population split between the members
and supporters of the Ba'ath Party, and those who sympathized with
the Iranian position. In 1980, Hussein claimed that Iranian forces
were trying to topple his government and declared war on Iran.
Saddam Hussein supported the Iranian
Islamic socialist organization called the
People's Mujahedin of
Iran which opposed the Iranian government. During the
Iran–Iraq War Iraqi forces attacked
Iranian soldiers and civilians with
chemical weapons.
Hussein's
regime was notorious for its human rights abuses; a
well-known example is the Al-Anfal
campaign as well as attacks on Kurd
civilians inside Iraq, such as the Halabja
massacre
, as punishment for elements of Kurdish support of
Iran. The war ended in
stalemate in
1988, largely due to American and Western support for Iraq. This
was part of the US policy of "
dual
containment" of Iraq and Iran. Between half a million and 1.5
million people from both sides died in the 1980–88 war.
The Baathist regime advocated women's
literacy and education.
In 1977,
the Iraqi government ordered the construction of Osirak (also spelled Osiraq) at the Al Tuwaitha
Nuclear Research Center, 18 km (11 miles) south-east of
Baghdad. It
was a 40 MW
light-water nuclear
materials testing reactor (MTR). In 1981, Israeli aircraft
bombed the facility, in order to prevent the
country from using the reactor for creation of nuclear
weapons.
Persian Gulf War
In 1990, faced with economic disaster following the end of the
Iran–Iraq War, Saddam Hussein looked to the oil-rich neighbour of
Kuwait as a target to invade to use its resources and money to
rebuild Iraq's economy. The Iraqi government claimed that Kuwait
was illegally
slant drilling its oil
pipelines into Iraqi territory, a practice which it demanded be
stopped; Kuwait rejected the notion that it was slant drilling, and
Iraq followed this in August 1990 with the
invasion of Kuwait. Upon successfully
occupying Kuwait, Hussein declared that Kuwait had ceased to exist
and it was to be part of Iraq, against heavy objections from many
countries and the
United
Nations.
The UN agreed to pass
economic
sanctions against Iraq and demanded its immediate withdrawal
from Kuwait (see
United Nations sanctions
against Iraq). Iraq refused and the UN Security Council in 1991
unanimously voted for military action against Iraq. The
United Nations Security
Council, under Chapter VII of the
United Nations Charter, adopted
Resolution 678, authorizing U.N. member states to use "all
necessary means" to "restore
international
peace and security in the area." The United States, which had
enormous vested interests in the oil supplies of the Persian Gulf
region, led an international coalition into Kuwait and Iraq.
The coalition forces entered the war with more advanced weaponry
than that of Iraq, though Iraq's military was one of the largest
armed forces in
Western Asia at the
time. Despite being a large military force, the Iraqi army was no
match for the advanced weaponry of the coalition forces and the air
superiority that the coalition forces provided. The coalition
forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military
including an
occupied public
shelter in Baghdad.
Iraq
responded to the invasion by launching SCUD
missile attacks against Israel
and Saudi
Arabia. Hussein hoped that by attacking Israel, the Israeli
military would be drawn into the war, which he believed would rally
anti-Israeli sentiment in neighboring
Arab countries and cause those countries to support Iraq. However,
Hussein's gamble failed, as Israel reluctantly accepted a U.S.
demand to remain out of the conflict to avoid inflaming tensions.
The Iraqi armed forces were quickly destroyed, and Hussein
eventually accepted the inevitable and ordered a withdrawal of
Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Before the forces were withdrawn,
however, Hussein ordered them to sabotage Kuwait's oil wells, which
resulted in hundreds of wells being set ablaze, causing an economic
and ecological disaster in Kuwait.
After the decisive military defeat, the agreement to a ceasefire on
February 28, and political maneuvering, the UN Security Council
continued to press its demands that Hussein accept previous UN
Security Council Resolutions, as stated in
UNSCR 686. By
April,
UNSCR 687
recognized Kuwait's sovereignty had been reinstated, and
established the
United Nations Special
Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). Two days later,
UNSCR 688
added that Iraq must cease violent repression of ethnic and
religious minorities.
The aftermath of the war saw the Iraqi military, especially its
air force, destroyed. In return for
peace, Iraq was forced to dismantle all chemical and biological
weapons it possessed, and end any attempt to create or purchase
nuclear weapons, to be assured by the allowing UN weapons
inspectors to evaluate the dismantlement of such weapons. Finally,
Iraq would face sanctions if it disobeyed any of the demands.
Shortly after the war ended in 1991,
Shia
Muslim and Kurdish Iraqis engaged in protests against Hussein's
regime, resulting in an
intifada. Hussein responded with
violent repression against Shia Muslims, and the protests came to
an end. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people were killed.
The US, UK, France and Turkey claiming authority under UNSCR 688,
established the
Iraqi no-fly
zones to protect Kurdish and Shiite populations from attacks by
the Hussein regime's aircraft.
Disarmament crisis
While Iraq had agreed to UNSCR 687, the Iraqi government sometimes
worked with inspectors, but ultimately failed to comply with
disarmament terms, and as a result, economic sanctions against Iraq
continued. After the war, Iraq was accused of breaking its
obligations throughout the 1990s, including the discovery in 1993
of a plan to assassinate former President
George H. W. Bush,
and the withdrawal of
Richard
Butler's UNSCOM weapon inspectors in 1998 after the Iraqi
government claimed some inspectors were spies for the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency. On
multiple occasions throughout the disarmament crisis, the UN passed
further resolutions (see
United Nations
Resolutions concerning Iraq) compelling Iraq to comply with the
terms of the ceasefire resolutions.
It is estimated more than 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result
of the sanctions. With humanitarian and economic concerns in mind,
UNSCR
706 and
UNSCR 712
allowed Iraq to sell oil in exchange for
humanitarian aid. This was later turned
into the
Oil-for-Food
Programme by
UNSCR 986.
Over the years, U.S.
land
forces were deployed to the Iraq border, and U.S.
bombings were carried out
to try to pressure Hussein to comply with UN resolutions.
As a result of these repeated violations,
US Secretary of State Madeline Albright,
US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and
US National Security Advisor
Sandy Berger held an international
town hall meeting to discuss
possible war with Iraq, which seemed to have little public support.
In October 1998, U.S. President
Bill
Clinton signed the
Iraq
Liberation Act, calling for "
regime
change" in Iraq, and initiated
Operation Desert Fox.
Following Operation Desert Fox, and end to partial cooperation from
Iraq prompted
UNSCR 1284,
disbanding UNSCOM and replacing it with
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission (UNMOVIC).
The Bush
administration made a number of allegations against Iraq, including
that Iraq was acquiring uranium from Niger
and that
Iraq had secret weapons laboratories in trailers and isolated
facilities throughout Iraq; none of these allegations have proven
true. Saddam Hussein, under pressure from the U.S. and the
U.N., finally agreed to allow weapons inspectors to return to Iraq
in 2002, but by that time the Bush administration had already begun
pushing for war.
In June 2002,
Operation
Southern Watch transitioned to
Operation Southern Focus, bombing
sites around Iraq. The first CIA team entered Iraq on July 10,
2002. This team was composed of elite CIA
Special Activities Division and
the U.S. Military's elite
Joint Special Operations
Command (JSOC) operators. Together, they prepared the battle
space of the entire country for conventional U.S. Military
forces.
Their efforts also organized the Kurdish Peshmerga to become the
northern front of the invasion and eventually defeat Ansar Al-Islam
in Northern Iraq before the invasion and Saddam's forces in the
north. The battle led to the killing of a substantial number of
terrorists and the uncovering of a chemical weapons facility at
Sargat. In October 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the
Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces
Against Iraq, and in November the UN Security Council passes
UNSCR
1441.
2000s
2003 invasion
On March 20, 2003, a United States-organized coalition
invaded Iraq, with the stated reason
that Iraq had failed to abandon its nuclear and chemical weapons
development program in violation of U.N. Resolution 687. The United
States asserted that because Iraq was in
material breach of Resolution 687, the
armed forces authorization of
Resolution 678 was revived. The United States further justified the
invasion by claiming that Iraq had or was developing
weapons of mass destruction and
stating a desire to remove an oppressive dictator from power and
bring democracy to Iraq. In his
State
of the Union Address on January 29, 2002,
President George W. Bush declared
that Iraq was a member of the "Axis of
Evil", and that, like North Korea
and Iran, Iraq's attempt to acquire weapons of mass
destruction posed a serious threat to U.S. national security. These claims
were based on documents that were provided to him by the CIA and
the government of the United Kingdom. Bush added,
Iraq continues to flaunt its hostilities toward America
and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop
anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear
weapons for over a decade... This is a regime that agreed to
international inspections — then kicked out inspectors. This is a
regime that has something to hide from the civilized world... By
seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes [Iran, Iraq and
North Korea] pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide
these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their
hatred.
However, according to a comprehensive U.S. government report, no
complete, fully functional weapons of mass destruction have been
found since the invasion. There are accounts of Polish troops
obtaining antiquated warheads, dating from the 1980s, two of which
contained trace amounts of the nerve gas cyclosarin, but U.S.
military tests found that the rounds were so deteriorated that they
would "have limited to no impact if used by insurgents against
coalition forces." Iraq was also home to 1.8 tons of low-enriched
uranium, miscellaneous other nuclear materials, and chemical
weapons paraphernalia; the nuclear material was under the
supervision of the IAEA until the beginning of the war.
Post-invasion
Following the invasion, the United States established the
Coalition Provisional
Authority to govern Iraq. Government authority was transferred
to an
Iraqi Interim
Government in June 2004, and a permanent government was elected
in October 2005. More than 140,000 troops, mainly Americans, remain
in Iraq.
Some studies have placed the number of civilians deaths as high as
655,000 (see
The Lancet
study), although most studies estimate a lower number; the
Iraq Body Count project
indicates a significantly lower number of civilian deaths than that
of The Lancet Study, though IBC organizers acknowledge that their
statistics are an undercount as they base their information off of
media-confirmed deaths. The website of the Iraq body count states,
"Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths - which can only
be a sample of true deaths unless one assumes that every civilian
death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most
civilian casualties will go
unreported by the media."
After the invasion,
al-Qaeda took advantage
of the insurgency to entrench itself in the country concurrently
with an
Arab-Sunni led insurgency
and
sectarian violence.
On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged. Hussein's
half-brother and former intelligence chief
Barzan Hassan and former
chief judge of the Revolutionary Court
Awad Hamed al-Bandar were likewise
executed on January 15, 2007; as was
Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's former
deputy and former vice-president (originally sentenced to life in
prison but later to death by hanging), on March 20, 2007. Ramadan
was the fourth and last man in the
al-Dujail trial to die by hanging
for
crimes against
humanity.
At the Anfal genocide trial, Saddam's cousin
Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka Chemical Ali),
former defense minister
Sultan
Hashim Ahmed al-Tay, and former deputy Hussein Rashid Mohammed
were sentenced to hang for their role in the
Al-Anfal Campaign against the Kurds on
June 24, 2007. Al-Majid was again sentenced to death for the 1991
suppression of a Shi'a uprising along with Abdul-Ghani Abdul Ghafur
on December 2, 2008.
Acts of sectarian violence have led to claims of
ethnic cleansing in Iraq, and there have
been many attacks on
Iraqi
minorities such as the
Yezidis,
Mandeans,
Assyrian
and others. A U.S.
"troop
surge" became a contentious political issue in
US politics and the
2008 US presidential
election.
Although violence declined from the summer of 2007, the U.N.
reported of a
cholera
outbreak in Iraq.
The mandate of the
multinational force in Iraq,
last extended by
UN resolution
1790, ended on December 31, 2008.
In June 2009, U.S. troops formally withdrew from Baghdad streets,
in accordance with former U.S. President
George W. Bush's security pact with Iraq known as a
Status of Forces Agreement. The SOFA pact stated, among other
things, that U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq's cities by June
30, 2009, and will leave the country on Dec. 31, 2011. Throughout
the country, as the citizens of Iraq celebrated with fireworks,
television programs declared June 30 as National Sovereignty Day.
In the months following the American forces leaving Baghdad and
other cities, however, violence spiked in Iraq. As Iraqi security
forces struggled to suppress the sudden influx of crime, the number
of kidnappings, robberies, bomb assaults, and shootings increased
dramatically. According to the Associated Press, Iraqi military
spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said investigations
found that 60 to 70 percent of the criminal activity is carried out
by former insurgent groups or by gangs affiliated with them —
partly explaining the brutality of some of the crimes. The
withdrawal of U.S. forces currently remains in doubt amid the
rising violence, and the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and
citizens have added to the growing concern that the promised
drawdown may be delayed in the face of escalating crime and
violence. Although United States Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates said that the withdrawal caused a
change of chemistry with “a real sense of empowerment on the part
of the Iraqis,” U.S. troops continue to be embedded with Iraqi
forces.
Geography
Iraq is located at . Spanning 437,072 km² (168,743 sq mi), it
is the 58th-largest country in the world.
It is comparable in
size to the US state of California
, and somewhat larger than Paraguay
.
Iraq
mainly consists of desert, but near the two
major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) are fertile
alluvial plains, as the rivers carry
about 60 million cubic metres (78 million cu.
yd) of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is mostly
composed of mountains; the highest point being at 3,611 metres
(11,847 ft) point, unnamed on the map opposite, but known
locally as Cheekah
Dar
(black tent). Iraq has a small
coastline measuring 58 km (35 miles) along the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab
(known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among
Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many were drained in the
1990s.
The local
climate is mostly
desert, with mild to cool winters and dry, hot,
cloudless summers. The northern mountainous regions (Kurdistan
region ههرێمی کوردستان) have cold winters with occasional heavy
snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding.
With its
of proved oil reserves, Iraq ranks fourth in the world behind
Saudi
Arabia, Canada
, and
Iran in the amount of Oil
reserves; yet the United States Department of
Energy estimates that up to 90% of the country remains
unexplored. These regions could yield an additional .
Iraq's
oil production costs are among the lowest in the world, but only
about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in
Iraq, compared with about 1 million wells in Texas
alone.
Environment
The ancient
Sumerian cities in
Mesopotamia had collapsed largely because of
crop failure due to high
soil
salinity, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is
estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three
fifths.
Iraq's environment has deteriorated over a period of decades. As a
result of the construction of a large number of upstream dams in
Iran, Syria and Turkey, combined with reduced rainfall over a
period of years, has contributed to both to drought and to higher
levels of salinity in the Shatt Al-Arab, destroying farms,
threatening livestock and causing civilians in southern areas to
flee their areas.
Government and politics
Government
The
federal government of Iraq is defined under the current
Constitution as an
Islamic,
democratic,
federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the
executive,
legislative, and
judicial branches, as well as numerous
independent commissions. Aside from the federal government, there
are regions (made of one or more governorates), governorates, and
districts within Iraq with jurisdiction over various matters as
defined by law.
Regions, governorates and districts
Currently, Kurdistan
is the only legally defined region within Iraq,
with its own government and quasi-official
militia, the Peshmerga. Basra Governorate
is preparing to hold a referendum to establish a
Basrah Region. Iraq itself is
divided into eighteen
governorates (or
provinces) (Arabic:
muhafadhat,
singular –
muhafadhah, Kurdish: پاریزگه
Pârizgah). The governorates are subdivided into
districts (or
qadhas).
The
following governorates are within the region Iraqi
Kurdistan:
Politics
Iraq was under
Baath Party rule from
1968 to 2003; in 1979
Saddam Hussein
took control and remained president until 2003 after which he was
unseated by a US-led
invasion.
On October 15, 2005, more than 63% of eligible Iraqis came out
across the country to vote on whether to accept or reject the new
constitution. On October 25,
the vote was certified and the constitution passed with a 78%
overall majority, with the percentage of support varying widely
between the country's territories.Wagner, Thomas, (October 25,
2005),
"Iraq's Constitution Adopted by Voters",
ABC News. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
The new constitution had overwhelming backing among the
Shia and Ķurdish communities, but was overwhelmingly rejected by
Arab Sunnis. Three majority Arab Sunni provinces rejected it
(Salah ad
Din
with 82% against, Ninawa
with 55%
against, and Al
Anbar
with 97% against).
Under the terms the constitution, the country conducted
fresh nationwide
parliamentary elections on December 15 to elect a new
government. The overwhelming majority of all three major
ethnic groups in Iraq voted along ethnic lines,
turning this vote into more of an ethnic
census than a competitive election, and setting the
stage for the division of the country along ethnic lines.
Iraqi politicians have been under significant threat by the various
factions that have promoted violence as a political weapon. The
ongoing violence in Iraq has been incited by an amalgam of
religious extremists that believe an Islamic
Caliphate should rule, old sectarian regime
members that had ruled under Saddam that want back the power they
had, and Iraqi nationalists that are fighting the
U.S. military presence.
Iraq has a number of ethnic minority groups:
Kurds,
Assyrians,
Mandeans,
Iraqi Turkmen,
Shabaks and
Roma.
These groups have not enjoyed equal status with the majority Arab
populations throughout Iraq's eighty-five year history. Since the
establishment of the "no-fly zones" following the
Gulf War of 1990–1991, the situation of the Kurds
has changed as they have established their own
autonomous region. This has been a source of
particular tension with Turkey. The remainder of these ethnic
groups continue to suffer discrimination on religious or ethnic
grounds.
In 2008, according to the
Failed States
Index, Iraq was the world's fifth most politically unstable
country. On November 17, 2008, the U.S. and Iraq agreed to a
Status of Forces
Agreement, as part of the broader
Strategic Framework Agreement.
This agreement notably states "the Government of Iraq requests"
U.S. forces to remain in Iraq to "maintain security and stability
in Iraq," and that Iraq has jurisdiction over military contractors,
and US personnel when not on US bases or on-duty.
Economy
An old 50 dinar bill
Iraq's economy is dominated by the
oil
sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign
exchange earnings.
In the 1980s financial problems caused by
massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran and damage
to oil export facilities by Iran led the government to implement
austerity measures, borrow heavily, and
later reschedule foreign debt
payments. Iraq suffered economic losses from the war of at
least
US$100
billion. After hostilities ended in
1988, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new
pipelines and restoration of damaged facilities. A combination of
low oil prices, repayment of
war debts
(estimated at around
US$3 billion a year)
and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial
crisis which was the main short term motivation for the
invasion of Kuwait.
On November 20, 2004, the
Paris Club of
creditor nations agreed to write off 80% ($33 billion) of Iraq's
$42 billion debt to Club members. Iraq's total external debt was
around $120 billion at the time of the 2003 invasion, and had grown
by $5 billion by 2004. The
debt relief
will be implemented in three stages: two of 30% each and one of
20%.Bohsem, Guido & Somerville, Glen, (November 20, 2004),
"G7, Paris Club Agree on Iraq Debt
Relief",
Reuters. Retrieved September 17,
2006.
At the end of 2005, and in the first half of 2006, Iraq implemented
a restructuring of about $20 billion of commercial debt claims on
terms comparable to that of its November 2004 Paris Club agreement
(i.e. with an 80% writeoff). Iraq offered to its larger claimants a
U.S. dollar denominated bond maturing in 2028. Smaller commercial
claimants received a cash settlement of comparable value.
Reconstruction
There have been attempts by the international community to improve
and repair the infrastructure of Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003
invasion, when much was destroyed. Iraq was governed, after the
2003 invasion, by the Coalition Provisional Authority and, after
June 28, 2004 by a series of Iraq-led governments (see Politics of
Iraq). During this period efforts were made to repair and replace
damaged Iraqi infrastructure, including: water supply systems,
sewage treatment plants, electricity production, hospitals and
health clinics, schools, housing, and transportation systems.
Reconstruction efforts have also encompassed the promotion of
economic development and government institutions such as the
criminal justice system.
While reconstruction efforts have produced some successes, problems
have arisen with the implementation of internationally funded Iraq
reconstruction efforts. These include inadequate security,
pervasive corruption, insufficient funding and poor coordination
among international agencies and local communities. Many suggest
that the efforts were hampered by a poor understanding of Iraq on
the part of the occupiers.
International assistance
Much reconstruction work in Iraq has been carried out by the Iraqi
people in their own communities using local resources. A major
benchmark for international assistance was the
Madrid Conference on
Reconstruction held inblahlblah Spain October 23–24, 2003 and
attended by representatives over 25 nations. Funds assembled at
this conference and from other sources have been administered by
the United Nations and the World Bank. This assistance has
primarily funded large-scale projects.
United
Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq focuses on implementing the
International Compact
with Iraq, to aid economic and political development in
Iraq.
Demographics
Iraq has a young population.
Here, a little girl and some boys are smiling for the
camera
An April 2009 estimate of the total Iraqi population is
31,234,000.
Around 75%-80% of Iraq's population is
Arab; the other major ethnic groups are the
Kurds at 15%-20%, the
Assyrians, the
Iraqi Turkmen and others (5%), who mostly live
in the north and northeast of the country. Around 20,000 indigenous
Maʻdān people live in southern Iraq. The
Iraqi population includes a community of around 20,000
Armenians, a small community of
Circassians, and a community of 2500
Chechens.
In southern Iraq there is a community of
Iraqis of African descent, a legacy of the slavery practiced in the Islamic Caliphate beginning
before the Zanj Rebellion of the
9th century AD, and Basra
's role as a
key port.
Arabic and
Kurdish are
official languages.
Assyrian and
Turkmen are official languages in areas
where the Assyrians and Iraqi Turkmen are located respectively.
Armenian and
Persian are also spoken but to a lesser
extent.
English is the most
commonly-spoken European language.
No official figures exist, due to the politically sensitive nature
of the subject, recent violence, and
Ba'athist views on information and religion.
Religious composition includes:
Two estimates of the
Muslim proportions of the
population are:
Linguistically, the adherents of
Shia
Islam in Iraq mostly speak
Arabic and almost one quarter of them speak
Persian, while the
Iraqi Turkmen speak Turkmeni and the
Feyli Kurds speak
Feyli, a
dialect of
Kurdish, almost all
belong to the
Twelver school. Adherents of
Sunni Islam include
Arabic speakers,
Iraqi Turkmen (who are mostly
Hanafi school), and
Kurds (who
are
Shafi school).
It is estimated that around of Iraqis 40% follow
Shia Islam, and around 55.5% follow
Sunni Islam, however the question of religious
demographics is controversial and some Iraqis who follow Sunni
Islam dispute these figures, including an ex-Iraqi ambassador,
referring to American sources. claiming that many reports only
include Arab Sunnis as "Sunni", missing out the Kurdish and Turkmen
Sunnis. Most Kurds are Sunnis, although the
Feyli Kurds are largely Shi'a.
Ethnic Assyrians (most of whom are adherents of the
Chaldean Catholic Church,
Syriac Orthodox Church and the
Assyrian Church of the
East) account for most of Iraq's
Christian population, along with Armenians.
Estimates for the numbers of Christians suggest a decline from
8–10% in the mid-20th century to 5% at the turn of the century, to
3% in 2008. About 600,000 Iraqi Christians have fled to Syria,
Jordan or other countries or relocated to Kurdish-controlled areas.
There are also small populations of
Bahá'ís,
Mandaeans,
Shabaks, and
Yezidis. The
Iraqi
Jewish community, numbering around 150,000 in 1941, almost
entirely left the country.
In
November 2006, the UNHCR estimated that 1.8
million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, with
nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month,
while another 1.6 million were displaced internally. A May
2007 article noted that in the previous seven months, only 69
people from Iraq had been granted
refugee
status in the United States.
Iraqi diaspora
The dispersion of native Iraqis to other countries is known as the
Iraqi diaspora. There have been many large-scale waves of
emigration from Iraq, beginning early in the regime of Saddam
Hussein and continuing through to 2007.
The UN High Commission for
Refugees has estimated that nearly two million Iraqis have fled
the country in recent years, mostly to Syria and Jordan.
Although some expatriates returned to Iraq after the 2003 invasion,
the flow had virtually stopped by 2006.
In addition to the 2 million Iraqis who fled to neighboring
countries, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates
the number of people currently displaced within the country at 1.9
million.
In 2007, the U.N. said that about 40% of Iraq's middle class is
believed to have fled and that most are fleeing systematic
persecution and have no desire to return. Refugees are mired in
poverty as they are generally barred from working in their host
countries.
In recent times the diaspora seems to be reversing with the
increased security of the last few months, and the Iraqi government
claims that so far 46,000 refugees have returned to their homes in
October 2007 alone. More than half of
Iraqi Christians have fled to neighboring
countries since the start of the war, and few plan to return.
Culture
Two ballet dancers of the Iraqi
National Ballet performing in Iraq in 2007.
Some important cultural institutions in the capital include the
Iraqi National Orchestra –
rehearsals and performances were briefly interrupted during the
Occupation of Iraq but have since
returned to normal, the National Theatre of Iraq – The theatre was
looted during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, but efforts are underway
to restore the theatre.The live theatre scene received a boost
during the 1990s when UN sanctions limited the import of foreign
films. As many as 30 movie theatres were reported to have been
converted to live stages, producing a wide range of comedies and
dramatic productions.
Institutions offering cultural education in Baghdad include the
Academy of Music, Institute of Fine Arts and the
Music and Ballet school
Baghdad.
Baghdad also features a number of museums
including the National Museum of Iraq
- which houses the world's largest and finest
collection of artifacts and relics of Ancient Iraqi civilizations; some of which were
stolen during the
Occupation of Iraq.
Music
Iraq is known primarily for an instrument called the
oud (similar to a
lute) and a
rebab (similar to a
fiddle); its stars include
Ahmed Mukhtar and the Assyrian
Munir Bashir. Until the fall of Saddam Hussein,
the most popular
radio station was the
Voice of Youth.
It played a mix of
western rock, hip hop and pop
music, all of which had to be imported via Jordan due to
international economic sanctions. Iraq has also produced a
major pan-Arab pop star-in-exile in
Kathem Al Saher. The folk songs of
Iraqi Turkmens are also well known, and
Abdurrahman Kızılay is
a leading name.
Sport
Football is the most popular
sport in Iraq. Football is a considerable uniting factor in Iraq
following years of war and unrest.
Basketball,
swimming,
weightlifting,
bodybuilding,
boxing,
kick boxing and
tennis are also popular sports.
The
Iraqi Football
Association ( ) is the governing body of football in Iraq,
controlling the
Iraqi
National Team and the
Iraqi
Premier League (also known as
Dawri
Al-Nokba).
It was founded in 1948, and has been a
member of FIFA
since 1950
and the Asian Football
Confederation since 1971. The Iraqi National
Football Team are the 2007 AFC Asian
Cup Champions after defeating Saudi Arabia in the final.
Cuisine
Iraqi
cuisine has a long history going back some 10,000
years - to the Sumerians, Akkadians
, Babylonians, Assyrians and Ancient
Persians. Tablets found in
ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during
religious festivals - the first cookbooks in the world.
Ancient Iraq, or
Mesopotamia, was home to many sophisticated
and highly advanced civilizations, in all fields of knowledge -
including the culinary arts.
However, it was in the medieval era when Baghdad was the
capital of the Abbasid Caliphate
that the Iraqi kitchen reached its zenith. Today, the cuisine of
Iraq reflects this rich inheritance as well as strong influences
from the culinary traditions of neighbouring Turkey, Iran and the
Greater Syria area.
Some characteristic ingredients of Iraqi cuisine include -
vegetables such as
aubergine,
tomato,
okra,
onion,
potato,
courgette,
garlic,
peppers and
chilli,
cereals such as
rice,
bulghur wheat and
barley,
pulses and legumes such as
lentils,
chickpeas and
cannellini, fruits such as
dates,
raisins,
apricots,
figs,
grapes,
melon,
pomegranate and
citrus
fruits, especially
lemon and
lime. Other Iraqi culinary essentials include
butter,
olive
oil,
olives,
tamarind,
vermicelli,
tahini,
pistachios,
almonds,
honey,
date syrup,
yogurt and
rose
water, cheeses such as
baladi,
feta and
halloumi, and
herbs and spices such as
cinnamon,
cardamom,
fenugreek,
cumin,
oregano,
saffron,
baharat,
sumac and
za'atar.
Similarly with other countries of
Western
Asia, chicken and especially lamb are the favourite meats. Most
dishes are served with rice - usually
Basmati, grown in the
marshes of Southern Iraq.
Bulghur wheat is used in many dishes - having
been a staple in the country since the days of the
Ancient Assyrians.
Meals begin with appetizers and salads - known as
Mezze. Some popular dishes include
Kebab (often marinated with garlic, lemon and
spices, then grilled),
Shawarma
(grilled meat sandwich wrap, similar to
Döner kebab),
Bamia (lamb, okra and tomato stew),
Quzi (lamb with rice, almonds, raisins and
spices),
Falafel (fried chickpea
patties served with
amba
and salad in
pita),
Kibbeh (minced meat ground with bulghur or rice
and spices),
Masgouf (grilled fish
with pepper and tamarind), and
Maqluba (a rice, lamb, tomato and aubergine
dish). Stuffed vegetable dishes such as
Dolma and
Mahshi are also popular.
See also
References
- http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/~rmallett/about3.html Iraq, also
known as Mesopotamia
- John A. Halloran, Sumerian
Lexicon, v.3.0 (2000)
- W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The
Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
- Suha Rassam, Christianity in Iraq: its origins and development
to the present day, Gracewing Publishing, 2005.
- ʿERĀQ-EʿAJAM(Ī) "Persian Iraq", Encyclopedia
Iranica Online.
- Iraq -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- The term [Iraq] did not encompass the regions north of the
region of Tikrit on the
Tigris and near Hit on the
Euphrates. Bernhardsson, Magnus Thorkell (2005) Reclaiming
a Plundered Past, Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern
Iraq University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, ISBN
0292709471, 9780292709478, 327 pages, p. 97
- Lane
- Boesch, Hans H. (1939) "Al-'Iraq", Economic Geography
15(4):325–361, p. 329
- Largest Cities Through History, Matt Rosenberg
- Erica Fraser. The Islamic World to 1600, University of
Calgary.
- Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and
Iraq
- Ian Frazier, Annals of history: Invaders: Destroying
Baghdad, The New Yorker 25 April 2005.
p.4
- Irrigation Systems, Ancient
- The Islamic World to 1600: The Mongol Invasions
(The Black Death), The University of Calgary
- Tamerlane - Timur the Lame Biography
- Iraq. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
Retrieved October
15, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- Population crises and cycles in history. A review of
the book Population Crises and Population cycles by Claire
Russell and W.M.S. Russell.
- Tripp, Charles:A History of Iraq,Cambridge:Cambridge
University Press,2000
- "Charges against Saddam dropped as genocide trial
resumes", AFP, 2007
- The Iran-Iraq war: 25 years on. BBC News.
September 22, 2005.
- Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War,
Rick
Atkinson, 1993, p. 284–285
- Felicity Arbuthnot, The Ameriya Shelter - St. Valentine's Day
Massacre, February 13, 2007.
- Scott Peterson, " 'Smarter' bombs still hit civilians, Christian
Science Monitor, 22 October 2002.
- 'Chemical Ali' on trial for brutal crushing of Shia
uprising. The Guardian. August 22, 2007.
- Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward, 2004.
- Operation Hotel California, The Clandestine War inside Iraq,
Mike Tucker and Charles Faddis, 2008.
- {{[1]
- [2]
-
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/07/mil-040702-rferl02.htm
-
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-07-01-poland-iraq-sarin
x.htm
-
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/index.html?siteSect=143&sid=5055996
- http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1078&dept
id=151021&newsid=12185667&PAG=461&rfi=9
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3861197.stm
- Second death sentence for Iraq's 'Chemical Ali,
MSNBC.com, December 2, 2008. Retrieved on December 2,
2008.
- Gates Notes Change in Chemistry Between Iraqi, U.S.
Forces
- " Pollution". Microsoft Encarta Online
Encyclopedia 2009. Archived 2009-10-31.
-
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/118238/Circassian
-
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/12785/chechens_in_the_middle_east.html
- Theola Labb, A Legacy Hidden in Plain Sight, Iraqis of African
Descent Are a Largely Overlooked Link to Slavery, January 11,
2004; Page A01.
- "Iraqis By the Numbers" by FARUQ ZIADA
- Map on the distribution of religious groups, from the
Baker-Hamilton Committee report,
page 102.
- " Embattled Jewish community down to last
survivors". USATODAY.com. July 27, 2003.
- U.N.: 100,000 Iraq refugees flee monthly.
Alexander G. Higgins, Boston Globe, November 3, 2006.
- Ann McFeatters: Iraq refugees find no refuge in America.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
May 25, 2007.
- http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3592 Foods of Iraq:
Enshrined With A Long History. Habeeb Salloum.
Bibliography
- Interview with Refugees International's Sean Garcia on the
plight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees [369537]
- Shadid, Anthony 2005. Night Draws Near. Henry Holt and Co.,
NY
,
U.S. ISBN 0-8050-7602-6
- Hanna
Batatu, "The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of
Iraq", Princeton: Princeton University Press
, 1978
- Charles Glass, "The Northern
Front: A Wartime Diary"' Saqi Books, London, 2004, ISBN
0863567703
- A Dweller in Mesopotamia, being the adventures of an
official artist in the garden of Eden, by Donald Maxwell, 1921.
(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu & layered PDF format)
- By Desert Ways to Baghdad, by Louisa Jebb (Mrs. Roland
Wilkins) With illustrations and a map, 1908 (1909 ed). (a
searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu & layered PDF format)
External links
- Government
- Iraqi Presidency Website
http://www.iraqipresidency.net/index.php?language=english
- Iraqi Government Website http://www.cabinet.iq
- Iraqi Parliament Website
http://www.parliament.iq/english/index.php?newlang=english
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.mofa.gov.iq/english/home.aspx
- Citizen Affairs http://www.citizenaffairs.com/
- Ministry of Defense
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.iraqmod.org/EN+-+Pages/EN-Home+page.html
- Ministry of Oil http://www.oil.gov.iq
- Ministry of Trade http://www.mot.gov.iq/default_en.aspx
- Ministry of Industry http://www.industry.gov.iq
- Ministry of Higher Education
http://www.mohesr.gov.iq/EngPages/indexE.htm
- Ministry of health
http://www.moh.gov.iq
- Chief of State and Cabinet Members
- Kurdistan
Regional Government
- General information
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